


autumnal

by bokutoma



Category: Akash: Path of the Five (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Growing Up Together, Heartbreak, Possibly Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 09:38:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20655083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bokutoma/pseuds/bokutoma
Summary: lux has been there through everything





	autumnal

By virtue of being Aurora’s best friend, Lux has been privy to every single one of her crushes, every moment of hopeless pining.

Of course, when he says it like that, it sounds like she’s had many, like she flits from person to person without ever getting to know them. Nothing could be further from the truth, and, even if it was, it’s not like she’s had many options.

When they were eight, she had harbored a two week infatuation with Magmus, a tale Lux likes to bring up often - it brings them both only minimal pain. Still, when she pinches his cheeks and calls him cute, he likes to remind her that she had announced her intention to marry the baker in the middle of the square, then practically assaulted the poor man with plans for the wedding cake.

When she blushes, he likes knowing that in some small way, it’s because of him.

The next time she’d gotten a crush, though, it had been six years later; Aurora had been fresh-faced and gangly, though not nearly as much as the others had been, in his opinion, and it had felt like Akash had only just fully recovered from the shock of her being a girl.

Though Aurora has never quite been the romantic that he has, there was a time when they’d pass romance novels between their rooms, giggling like they were the sort of contraband that Rocco had been smuggling in since his twelfth birthday. Dashing pirates, princes’ hearts melted by pure maidens...in many ways, Lux still blames himself for her first heartbreak.

Caspian has fit the definition of a romance hero perfectly: well-bred, well-mannered, and well-guarded. Lux still remembers seeing the signs, watching the moonstruck look that had overtaken her every time they’d enter their classroom to find the water elemental already there, studying intently. It should have been perfect; even then, Lux had known that there would never be an Al’wani more beautiful or kindhearted. When his heart cried, he had not thought it a warning for her, only his own damnable self-interest. He could swallow that for Aurora’s perfect match.

Except Caspian had never thawed. Through a combination of teenage awkwardness and his blunt, often rude personality. He had dashed Lux’s best friend’s hopes, inadvertently humiliating her in the process. Lux wasn’t and had never been the sort to hate, but it had been a good year before the taint of loathing lifted from his private feelings toward the other man. Sometimes, his blood still boils.

Still, even that doesn’t compare to the sting of nearly two years ago. Aurora has always been reasonable, with a level head that he sometimes envies. She has her weaknesses, of course, but there’s far more practicality to her than her class time naps suggest.

When she fell head over heels for *Sirocco*, of all people, he wasn’t sure who was more surprised, him or Aurora herself.

“Aurora,” he remembers saying, gentle as he could without seeming like he was patronizing her. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

In a rare bout of genuine frustration, maybe even anger, she had thrown her hands up. “I can’t help it, Lux! I know nothing is gonna come of it, but...” She had trailed off, voice tender in a way that he still wishes he could hear directed toward himself. “He’s funny, he’s handsome, he’s kind when he thinks no one is watching...Nothing will happen, so just let me have this, okay?”

And what could he do but fold her into a hug, one she had once jokingly said could cure all diseases. Aurora may have had a reasonable head, but her heart had always been soft.

When Rocco has first boasted of having relations with a human woman, he had felt her heartbreak like a gut punch.

“There’s really nothing to it, darling,” he had drawled, legs splayed across Rowan’s lap. “Practically all you have to do is smile and kick up a small breeze, and they’re hungry for the kind of sweetness only an elemental can provide.”

She had hung on his every word with morbid intensity, tracking his every movement with the look she usually reserved for training, or perhaps a potential sweetroll feast. Though she had attempted nonchalance, Lux had suspected that even those who didn’t know her like he did could tell that something had shifted. Ignatius had stolen glances from beneath furrowed brows, pretending he didn’t care even when her mouth twisted in distress, but the grip on his charcoal had belied his concern. Even Caspian had looked more irritated than usual, barking out an order to “cease this depravity at once!”

Still, Aurora had persisted, despite the advice of both him and her own mind.

It had only been when reports of the fourth girl had come along - courtesy of Rowan - that she came to her senses.

For months, Lux had prayed to the Goddess for guidance, desperate in the way that only he could be, gripped with the fear of Aurora’s heart sustaining permanent damage. As it turned out, he need not have worried. When Rocco had next spun a tale of things Lux thought better left to older minds, his best friend had cut in with a quick joke and the sort of sharp smile that spoke of pleasure rather than pain. He had looked at her questioningly, attempting subtlety the best he could as Rowan cackled furiously, but she had merely smiled, sunny and unbothered as ever.

There had been no one else; in the fourteen years Lux had known her, Aurora had only genuinely fallen for two people. He counted his blessings. After all, she had escaped relatively unscathed.

Still, on certain nights when the moon was new and the sky cloudy, Lux has to wonder what it would take for her to finally see him the way he saw her, beautiful and perfect.

Friends, though...well, he wouldn’t mind living like that forever.

He loved her, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on twitter @kingblaiddyd


End file.
